Escape from Pain
by Shawn45
Summary: With so many things going wrong, four children escape from their safe haven and go to do things their way, and to simply escape the pain. Pairings : NarutoSakura GaaraHinata Discontinued
1. Chapter 1

Man, my energy for writing Naruto has been RENEWED! The damn fillers are over finally! Anyways, I have had this idea floating in my head for a good time now, and after reading a few fanfics, I have finally decided to write another one… (And hopefully complete this one.)

"Speaking"

Thinking

Edit: March 1, 2010

Who knew my energy to write this would go down the drain once I realized that the new series was almost as bad as the fillers? Haha, yeah, I don't know why, but I looked at my stories, and this one really interested me. I am not sure if I will get around to a second chapter, but I at least wanted to fix up the first chapter a little bit.

XxXxXxXxX

The purpose of this trip, it was to train, right? It was for the time when he and Sakura would go and save Sasuke! He needed to be stronger, but this - This isn't exactly what he'd call training…

All around, huge trees stood multiple meters from the ground. Little beams of the morning Sunlight would shine in through little cracks of the leaves, and the ground glistened with the dew still stuck on it. It was overall, a peaceful place to be alone to think.

Naruto sat against a lone tree thinking. For almost a year now, he had wandered with his sensei, Jiraiya. He had gotten new clothing, although it was pretty much as bright as his old suit. He grew out his hair, but unfortunately, he did not grow stronger of all things.

"Was the purpose of this trip?" He muttered with a bit of gloom, "To have me avoid Akatsuki?"

It must have been… All he had been doing was stupid chores for the old man, whenever they went to a town for a short visit, Naruto would point out some weights he wouldn't mind getting - they were cheap to boot! – Unfortunately Jiraiya said no.

_They'd slow me down? _He thought bitterly, _what kind of pathetic excuse is that?_

He finally stood up and took in a deep breath. "At this rate I won't be able to fulfill Sakura's promise…" His face darkened again, "All my friends, they're all probably stronger than me already… Even Sakura-chan!" He could feel some tears stinging at his eyes. "This is useless! She's being trained by one of the Sannin! She'll be stronger than I'll be by light-years by the time I get back."

He grabbed a Kunai and threw it at a nearby tree. It hit almost twenty centimeters from the center of the target he created, no better than all his other tries.

"I'm not improving at all…" He looked down in pain and confusion. "Why would Tsunade do this to me?"

He held back a yell of anger and stomped over to his kunai he threw and plucked it out along with the other three he had thrown earlier. _This is it… I'm leaving tonight! _He smiled at the thought. Jiraiya was supposedly going to town for 'information' on where they would go next. Naruto knew what he was really going for however.

_It is my best shot at escaping without him noticing for almost a day! _A small grin appeared on his face. Whenever his 'sensei' went to town, he left Naruto at their campsite to protect it from any bandits, or that's what he'd say.

Tonight, he would leave by himself to train. He'd be better self-taught than what was occurring right now. With a determined look in his eyes, he wandered back to where the old man was sure to be right now.

_Tonight… _Was his last thought as he left his small training area and walked back to the camp.

XxXxXxXxX

Sakura was not having a good day. Actually, she was having a terrible day. Nothing could compare to this. Absolutely nothing.

She was currently aimlessly walking through one of the multiple parks of Konoha; it was quite a beautiful place. If only her mood was as bright and colorful as the place around her…

The fourteen year old brushed her hand through her pink hair. Unlike Ino, she had decided to keep it short, claiming that it helped not get in the way of her work. She felt a rising urge to let out a cry of annoyance once her hand left her hair however.

Earlier that day she had gotten a letter from Naruto. Usually, this brightened up her day, because Naruto was funny and he always wrote to her about where he was traveling. Unfortunately, in the latest one, Naruto admitted what he really thought what was going on. She felt her heart fall at the words of the letter.

_He's not training at all? _She thought in dread, _Great… Alone I can do absolutely nothing to retrieve Sasuke-kun back… _She felt like crying, but held it in, not wanting the people around her in the park to see her cry.

Unfortunately for her, that was not all the bad news she was going to receive that day. Ino had found her wandering the park, and had told her that Tsunade wanted to see her.

Pocketing the letter she quickly left to see the Kage.

When she entered the office, the smell of alcohol was present, but she ignored it and pressed forward. "You needed me Tsunade-sama?" She asked uncertainly.

"Sakura." The older woman said in a serious tone. From behind her desk she had a very calm look on her face. He blonde hair sat easily on her shoulders, the diamond shaped thing atop her head gleamed with a nice shade of purple. "The life of a ninja is one filled with both danger and risk."

"Of course Hokage-sama, but why tell me this?"

"Sakura… Your pursuit of Sasuke is pointless." The Hokage said bluntly, "I know that was the only reason you wished to continue this career." The older woman let out a silent but steady breath, "Sasuke is gone, and he's too corrupted to be saved."

"What? Do you think I am that stupid?! Speaking of Sasuke, how do you know that he is corrupted?!" She shouted, not caring that it was towards the Hokage.

"Jiraiya." She simply stated, "He sends me letters and updates me every other month of the journey. He sends me all the rumors that he has heard, and tell me how true each could be." He sighed, "As stupid as the idiot can be at times, I fear that his latest information is not false."

"How would you know-." She was cut off.

Tsunade slammed her hand on a stack of papers in front of her. "Here are all the reports of Sasuke. Each one states a rumor of the Uchiha, and some little known facts." Sakura felt her heart go deeper from this news. "He's been killing some of our border patrol, he's too deep into darkness now… Even if he does come back, he'd have to stand trial."

"But…" Sakura could now feel tears stinging the end of her eyes. "He couldn't! It's been only a year since he left!"

Tsunade felt pity for the child and said, "I'll allow you to quit your career as a ninja if you want. No one will think low of you to do so. You've seen some things that a child of your rank and experience should not have seen for another ten years."

Sakura was lost in thought. _Sasuke… Lost? _She shook her head, _is he the only reason I became a ninja? _She wondered.

"At first…" Sakura stated, "Sasuke was the only reason I was encouraged to become a ninja of the leaf, but now… I have so much to prove… Please Tsunade, maybe if you took me more seriously, and had Jiraiya-sama actually TRAIN Naruto, we could save Sasuke!"

Tsunade stopped a gasp from coming out of her lips, "Why would you think we'd not train Naruto?"

"He sends me letters too…" Sakura said with some venom in her voice, "He says that it is even obvious to him that all he and Jiraiya-sama are doing is running from some group… Akatsuki… Or something like that."

Tsunade felt the blood from her face drain. "What? Can I see the letter you're speaking of?"

Sakura nodded, hoping the Hokage would do something about it. "Here, I have it in my pocket." She pulled it out and gave it to her sensei.

Tsunades eyes darted from top to bottom several times until it became clear to her. "He's not going to let this pass… What if he tries something stupid?" She muttered to herself, only loud enough so Sakura could hear her.

"Tell Jiraiya to train him like he was supposed to!" Sakura stated. That was the easiest thing she could think of to do, and it would benefit them all.

"No… We can't have that. If they find him and he's too beaten from training, he could do nothing and they take him away…" Tsunade sighed, "Sakura, whenever you get your next letter from Naruto, inform me. I'll send one to Jiraiya right now to tell him to make his plan less obvious."

Sakura felt anger rising, "Hokage-sama! He has to train! He and I are going to go save Sasuke when he gets back! He needs to be strong so we can actually do this!"

Tsunade simply shook her head; "I'll see you tomorrow."

Sakura was abruptly taken out of the room by two chuunin standing next to the door.

This was not what was supposed to happen… Not at all. She was never taken seriously, and worse, neither was Naruto. How could they complete their goal if they were constantly running into huge brick walls?

Searching through her mind, Sakura could find a very attractive logical and yet, a very illogical and stupid thing to do. "I have to run away, and train on my own, and try to find Naruto…"

Of course, this was easier said than done, she'd have no guidance, and finding Naruto would be much harder than looking up at a sign saying, 'Naruto, - Next left'. All the information she gained from this letter was that he was near where their first big mission took place…

_Looks like I'm going to revisit some old friends of mine_… She thought to herself, and went home to begin packing her things for the trip.

XxXxXxXxX

Everything was supposed to be all good. After he turned good, stopped killing people, and sending out huge killing intents, he figured people would stop shunning him like they had for years, and finally come back to accept him… He was wrong.

He'd walk through the sandy streets of the village of the Sand, Suna. People were quickly avoiding him as he slowly walked through the street, without his gourd even. He didn't send out any intent to kill, nothing at all to gain this behavior towards him.

He knew the recovery of gaining trust would be a long one, but not so much a harsh one. He always got rid of the feeling within him now by killing, but with sense knocked into him, he quickly found that killing others to find a purpose was 'wrong' for lack of better words.

He felt void of all emotions, unlike the last time that he was in control of all his thoughts and such. He envied others, who were able to show happiness, sadness, and even fear of such small things. One thing he had always wanted though was to be loved, even as a child, it was his one true dream… He knew his mother had cursed him, he knew his parents both hated him, the village did, and his dead care taker hated him as well.

Gaara let out a sigh.

He emotionlessly looked around the street he was on. People were running into buildings to avoid even being looked at by him. It hurt on the inside… Just like when he was a child. He closed his eyes, and let out a slightly depressed sounding sigh.

He had to amend for his past behavior and such. He'd have to start by speaking with the people, and getting an understanding between him and them.

He walked over to a girl around his age, who was currently busy making some food for the stand she ran. She was completely oblivious of Gaara's presence.

"H- Hello." Gaara managed to get out. Even a greeting was tough for him to do.

"Hi, what'll you-." She stopped mid sentence upon looking up at her customer. She ended up breaking down and silently saying, "Please! Don't kill me! I'll do anything you want! Just… please…"

Gaara looked down and said, "I will not hurt you, I merely wish to-"

All this fell on deaf ear to the girl as she began to yell out, "Please! I don't want to die yet! You already tried to kill me when I was young!" She cried out.

Gaara inspected the girl. Suddenly it came to him, "You're the one that I said sorry to…" Gaara felt a quick intent to kill leave his body and he quickly crushed it and looked back down at her, but she was frozen from the aura he released for only a second. "Please, like last time I only want to… Talk…"

She looked up, some confusion in her eyes, but before she could say anything, others began to scream out.

"L-leave her alone D- Demon!"

"You should have been killed the day you were born!"

"You've been nothing but trouble!"

"You should just do us a favor and die!"

More and more shouts entered the air, and the somewhat confused look in the girl's eyes was replaces with anger and hate. "Yes Demon! Leave now!"

Gaara felt an emotion that he had long ago thought he had gotten rid of; sadness… He felt worthless right now. Was this the reason he allowed his demon to take over? He quickly made his way from the girl and the now screaming crowd and wandered to the border of the village.

He figured now, the feeling within him, was hate. Hate for the villagers. "But why," He muttered to himself, "Why must I be the one born with this… curse?"

He saw some water hit the ground. _A raindrop? _He thought and quickly looked up; there were no clouds within the area. He looking back down and raised his hand to his face and rubbed an itch in his eye. When he removed his hand he looked to a little bit of water on them.

"I'm… crying…" He said to no one in particular. It felt wrong, but at the same time, it felt so right as well. This is why he hated emotions… They cloud with mind with irrational thoughts.

"I need to get away from here." He muttered to himself. Looking up and the wall, he quickly gathered sand around his back to form a gourd. Although it wasn't his preferred sand, it would have to do for now.

He jumped on top of the wall and turned around to face the village, "Bye." He simply said as he jumped down on the other side.

XxXxXxXxX

A young woman sat on her bed in her room crying. She had black hair that was about shoulder length, and a black jacket on, her eyes were a lavender white color, very unique some would say, to be among her clan.

She removed the tissue from her face; her tears were wiped away for the moment. She had unfortunately had to go through another round of having her younger sister beat her, and then be mocked by her father and every other important figure of her clan...

Why did her life have to be like this? She had just wanted to be a normal girl… Wanted to have other friends, and do things with them, not be the sole responsibility of the whole Hyuuga clan. When she was eligible by her fathers' standards, she would become the clan head, but her fathers' standards were too harsh, and she'd never reach them…

"Why am I so weak?" She absently asked to no one in particular. "Why was I born like this?"

She muttered some other things and looked longingly at the photo by her bed on her nightstand. There sat the whole Academy class, back seven years ago. She looked though, at only one person in the picture.

"Naruto-kun…" She said silently, and felt more tears come to her eyes. She was unable to see him off, and had not seen him for almost two years, the last time she could even recall seeing him was right before the Chuunin exam.

She was about to cry some more, but a knock on her door made her have to quickly compose herself. "Hold on!' She said in a calm voice. "I'll be right there."

"Hinata-sama." A voice behind the door said. Hinata relaxed a little, it was only Neji, the one member of her clan whom she could rely on in tough times.

"Come in Neji." She muttered with sadness evident in her voice.

Neji hesitantly walked in, with care he quickly shut the door behind him and walked over and sat by Hinata on her bed. They sat in silence for a moment before Neji said, "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Neji-" She tried to say, but he cut her off.

"No! It is. You're suffering. I have treated you with hate and dislike for so long, that I must have made that pain worse than it was before…" He looked down regret evident in his voice, "I'm surprised that you're so forgiving, after that attack I did to you…"

Hinata, with a little confidence, said, "Neji, that was about two years ago. I forgive you, Isn't that what cousins do – comfort each other?"

Neji smiled for a bit and said, "Yes… I suppose that is how relatives should be with each other."

Before they could speak anymore on the matter, another knock came upon the door of Hinata's. "Hinata-sama, you're dinner is prepared."

Neji turned towards Hinata and nodded, "I'll be excusing myself." He got up and walked away leaving Hinata to lonesome. "Please, be well Hinata-sama."

Hinata nodded and quickly prepared for dinner. She hated this time of day so much. It always consisted of her being mocked by her younger sister and sometimes her father, then her father would give her harsh words and make her feel worthless. However, she was now use to this.

"Tell father I'll be right there." She told the servant who came to tell her of the news.

She quickly dressed into her formal clothing, and left her room. She walked through the long hallways of her house. How she hated them so much… It reminded herself of how alone she always was… No one was ever in the halls with her.

Finally she managed to make it through to make it to the dining area. Where she, her father, and her sister all ate in relative silence never even acknowledging each other's presence.

"Hinata." Her father stated after they had been eating for a while. "You have to improve. I am feeling as though I am teaching a non-Hyuuga. You're falling behind, on all your work, and your sister is even passing you in several areas of your study."

Hanabi, Hinata's sister, smirked while she ate her food.

"If you keep this up, your sister will take your place as heir to the clan." Her father stated.

Hanabi smiled and said, "Isn't it true that whoever doesn't become the head gets the seal on their head?" She was rubbing salt on Hinata's wound.

Their father said nothing, but both of them knew the answer.

Hinata felt a pain come from inside of her. "Father, may I be excused?" She asked in a kind voice.

He nodded silently, and she left the table, but her sister wanted to say one last thing, "Looks like you're too weak to eat with father now." She said off-handedly.

Hinata panicked and quickly ran back to her room, through all the halls and such and entered the safety of her room once more. She felt tears exiting her eyes again and sat down crying once again. _I'll never be strong like Hanabi or father._

She kept this up for almost an hour until she felt secure enough to exit the house without breaking down. She walked pass the guards and waved at them, but they simply ignored her.

She walked further until she finally reached a park next to the western wall of the village. She looked up at it. _If only I could be free… _She stopped the chain of thought however, when she felt an itch in her eye.

_Naruto-kun is free out there… training. Unlike me, I'll never improve… _She thought unhappily. She sat on a bench and kept glancing at the wall, until she finally decided what she should do.

_Naruto-kun… I'll find you… and train with you and be strong… then father will be proud of me! _She smiled at the thought of her dad being proud of her and walked back home. _Tonight… _She thought, _Tonight I'll go find him._

XxXxXxXxX

That night, two girls left Konoha, while most of the population was asleep.

Chapter one – END

A/N – Why was I so addicted to ellipses? I think I deleted over 20 of them to make the story flow better, and there is still a ton in there. Jeez. I was a terrible writer back then. Haha. I hope you guys enjoyed this slightly revised and edited chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

And here's chapter two! It's only 3 years late! Haha, just so you guys know, I am completely winging it with the story, but I do not plan on having any deux ex machina in it, because that is just lame. Furthermore, if you guys happen to read this and have suggestions, please feel free to put them in. I am always glad to read what you guys write!

To the person that reviewed about two weeks ago, Lalaith Quetzalli, I completely agree. I hate how I wrote those two characters. Back then I used to bash characters to get a point across, but I really hate character bashing now. They won't be acting quite that badly the next times they appear.

There are a lot of scenes jumping around in this chapter, so just hold on tight!

"Speaking"

_Thinking_

Sweat beaded his face as he lay on the forest floor gasping for breath, but oddly enough a smile lit up his face as well. Slowly he sat up, and crossed his legs, glancing around the training ground, formerly known as a section of the forest. He continued to gasp, but got up and walked over to a tree that wasn't in ruins and opened it to reveal a bunch of food. Wasting no time at all he grabbed an apple and began to eat it as he leaned back against the tree.

It had been three days since he left Jiraiya, and he knew the man would be looking furiously for him, but thankfully avoiding the ANBU when he was a kid came into use once more. Thinking of Jiraiya made him chuckle, but it died down after a little bit.

"Was it a good idea to run away?"

Of course nothing answered back, but he wanted to hear something other than the sound of silence all around him. Destroying the trees must have scared everything off.

"Well, I haven't had this good of a work out for years now." He shrugged, and glanced up at the sun, "Might as well get packing." With that he finished the apple and threw the core onto the ground.

He ran around camp and gathered up his kunai, and other miscellaneous weapons, and pocketed them in his pouch. Once that was done he walked over to his backpack filled with food and heaved it onto his shoulder.

Every morning since he left, at around five he would wake up and train for several hours, and then he would run towards his destination – Wave country. He was hoping that Inari and his family would allow him to stay for maybe a day or two at most. A nice relaxing bed would be the best thing in the world for him right about now, especially for his sore back.

Not wanting to waste anymore time Naruto burst forth with a ton of speed, shooting through the forest like a rocket. The small smile never left his face.

XxXxXxX

Meanwhile, Sakura was walking along the road at a brisk pace. When she left no one even bothered to ask her where she was going, just assuming that she was under the orders of the Hokage to go off somewhere. She had left early that morning, and she knew she still had around six hours before Tsunade even had a chance to know about her departure.

The two Chuunin guarding the front of the village were going to go back to the Hokage tower at around noon, and they were to write a small report for each person who entered and left the gate. Of course, there was only a small chance Tsunade was going to notice that file – no, she was going to notice something is amiss at around four, at the time she and Sakura were to meet to begin her medical training.

Sakura couldn't help but allow a small smile to cross her face. It felt so good getting back at Tsunade for what she said the day before.

Before she could even continue her train of thought, Sakura looked ahead and was surprised to see someone just standing in the middle of the road. She walked quickly up to the person and put her hand on the girls shoulder.

Hinata couldn't help but jump when she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. She spun around like a top, and saw Sakura standing there.

"Sakura, how nice to see you…"

"What are you doing out here so early Hinata?" Sakura asked, "Did your team get a mission to leave the village?"

"N- no."

"Oh? So you're out here alone? Why?"

Hinata was on the verge of panic, her eyes darting between Sakura and the ground. Her voice stuttering like never before, not even allowing herself to complete a simple word. She finally settled on looking at the ground, and whispered something so quietly that Sakura wondered if she had even said anything at all.

"What?"

"I am running away." Hinata said a little louder.

"What? Why?" Sakura nearly shouted in surprise, "Aren't you going to be the head of your clan? Why would you leave the village?"

Hinata couldn't bring herself to speak, her mind racing back to her home life, and the freedom she was trying to get. She felt so stupid for walking so slowly, of course someone would catch her! Tears began to fall from her eyes, and that is when she felt Sakura wrap her arms around her.

"Hinata, calm down." Sakura said reassuringly into her ear.

Hinata held Sakura for a little longer, before Sakura pulled away. Hinata was breathing erratically, but was calmed down from what she was previously.

"I don't like living there." She finally said, "I had to get away."

Sakura nodded, "So you're running away?"

"Yes." She said with determination, "Please, don't take me back."

Sakura's response baffled Hinata completely. Sakura just laughed a little and hugged Hinata once again. Hinata glanced at Sakura, unsure of what to make of this very odd gesture.

"S- Sakura?"

"Don't worry Hinata! I am running away too. I am going to find Naruto and we're going to train together."

Hinata felt her heart jump at the mere mention of his name, and her breath got caught in her throat. She tried to ask if she could go, but her mouth wouldn't move. She was shocked that her salvation to find Naruto had appeared in front of her.

"Do you want to come with me?"

"YES!" Hinata shouted, unable to help herself.

"Good." Sakura smiled, "I am not sure where he is, but I have a general idea of where he is going. Have you been to wave before?"

XxXxXxX

In the Wind Country a young teenager of fourteen was walking through the desert. Usually walking through such a place would be suicide, but thankfully for this person, he had complete control over sand, and a demon residing within him to aid in his survival.

His mind was in complete chaos, with his emotions raging an internal battle against the demon inside of him.

**_They hate you! There is nothing left for you in this world! Let me free so I can kill everyone!_**

_No._

**_Did you notice how they treated you, even after you regained control of your emotions boy? They don't care about you, no matter how good you say you are!_**

Gaara was silent.

**_Even you agree with me! That village is worthless! Everything that Naruto kid told you is a lie!_**

_No, Naruto truly loved his village, and earned their respect. _

**_Then why are you running away?_**

_Leave me be demon._

Gaara began to just ignore the beast inside of him, but unlike Naruto, Gaara could never get it to stop. Every waking moment of his life he has to listen to this demon, and he despised it. He had to be in complete control every minute, of his life. That is why he could never sleep for more than a few hours at most.

He looked up as the harsh winds began to stop, and the wasteland of sand began to form into a forest about fifty kilometers in front of him. Patches of grass were beginning to pop up more often as he walked towards the trees, and his thoughts turned to Naruto.

He had to find him again. He had to know why and how Naruto was so strong emotionally.

With his goal set in his mind, Gaara trudged forth towards Konoha.

XxXxXxX

Jiraiya was in a panic. No, that was not quite the right word for it; he was desperately trying to find the damn brat. This boy was the lifeline to the future of the entire world, and he couldn't afford to lose him now. Again he mentally cursed himself, he should have known that Naruto wasn't going to appreciate what he was doing, and now he was beginning to pay for it! Didn't the boy know how important he was?

The sun indicated that it was about noon, and he still had no signs of where the stupid kid was.

_What if he got captured by Akatsuki? _He stopped in his tracks on the branch of a tree. _No, I can't think like that. _

He moved forward and suddenly fell upon a site that nearly made him cry out in relief; he found a small area with a ton of trees knocked down and slash marks covering the bordering trees. He descended down and looked around; trying to find any trace of which direction the boy might have gone.

"Nothing." He sighed, "I suppose I should have expected such a thing."

Naruto was very predictable, but he had no clue where the kid could have gone. He covered his traces well, taking hours for Jiraiya to find, and he couldn't figure out if he was hours or days behind the kid. It was really getting to him.

Suddenly a small bird landed on his shoulder with a message tied to its leg. Jiraiya took it immediately and opened it up. It was from Tsunade herself, and he was certain that she knew what was going on.

"I'm being too obvious with my intentions." He summed up, "You could have come maybe a few days earlier!" He shouted to no one in particular and punched a tree with all his might. He pulled his hand back, and whimpered as all his fingers were now broken, "Damn it…"

He turned towards the bird, and reached into his pack, and pulled out a pen. Turning the paper that Tsunade sent him and with his good hand wrote down what had happened. Finally, he put it onto the bird's leg, and prayed to whatever god that Tsunade wouldn't break his neck for losing the kid.

XxXxXxX

In Konoha Tsunade was doing paper work, her eyes glancing out towards a cabinet that Shizune had locked her alcohol in and letting out a large sigh. She could easily break through the furniture with her enhanced strength, but then having someone yell at her for it wasn't something she was looking forward to.

She glanced at the clock and frowned, usually Sakura would be here by now for her lessons. The girl was always half an hour early. Tsunade couldn't help but have a nagging feeling on her mind as she thought about it, but instead decided to just focus on her work for once in her life.

Shizune came in carrying a stack papers onto her desk, "Here are the gate reports you 'forgot' about."

Tsunade laughed a little, "Must have left my mind!"

"Obviously…" Shizune sighed, and glanced at the clock, "Where is Sakura?"

"I was wondering that myself." Tsunade said, "Is she working at the hospital?"

"No, she wasn't there when I was."

"Maybe she is sick?"

"You know more than I do that she could easily cure herself of any simple sickness."

"Right, right." Tsunade waved her off, "It is kind of unsettling though."

"Do you want me to go check at her house?"

"Would you kindly?" Tsunade asked, a smile crossed her face, "I wonder if she just forgot."

Shizune left after that to go pick up Sakura, and Tsunade began to go through the reports. She shifted through them, but right when she was about to put them down, a name caught her eye.

"What is this?"

She read the report, and the color drained out of her face within seconds. Before she could do anything else a bird landed on her shoulder, and she grabbed the message wrapped around it without thinking much.

"Naruto has gone missing?" If possible, her face would have gone even more pale than it all ready was. She leaned in the back of her chair, her mind drawing up a blank. Suddenly it clicked in her mind, "She must be looking for Naruto."

She got out a pen and a new piece of paper from her desk and quickly wrote down that she was almost positive that Naruto would be heading towards the Wave Country to see his old friends, no matter how much he needed to train. She was suddenly thankful that Naruto had told her about that time.

"I should send a Genin squad to go collect Sakura as well." She said to herself, and pulled up a file for the perfect team to get her. She then noticed another letter Shizune had brought in for her, and to her surprise, it had the Hyuuga seal on it.

XxXxXxX

Elsewhere in Konoha, the Hyuuga estate was in an uproar.

At first Hiashi was able to keep Hinata's disappearance to himself, he had simply walked around the building trying to find the girl that morning for her practices, but it soon became apparent that she was not within the building. He eventually told Neji, and he searched the village for Hiashi, but still couldn't find any signs of the girl.

Once Neji had told Hiashi that he found no signs of his daughter, all hell broke loose. The Hyuuga elders went nuts, sending multiple branch members to search the town for the girl, and even sending a letter to the Hokage. However, they still found no signs of the girl.

"Does this mean I am the new heir to the clan?" Hanabi asked, her curious eyes looking towards her father as he leaned forward in his study, his hands clasped on his head.

"It's too early to say."

"But if they can't find her, will I be the new heir?" She pressed on.

Hiashi glanced up at his daughter, "Yes. You would be the new heir to the clan."

Hanabi smiled at that, "Good."

Neji who was guarding outside of the room shook his head at that, knowing Hanabi wouldn't be the one to make any changes to the clan. His head then shot up and he walked into the study and got onto his knee.

"If I may speak, I think I know where Hinata may be."

"Please, stand Neji. What can you tell me about where Hinata is?"

"It might be a stretch, but you know her infatuation with Naruto, correct?"

Hiashi let out a long sigh, "What of it?"

"What if she left the village to go seek him out?"

"Why would she do such a thing? Doesn't she know of her responsibilities?"

"I am sure she does." Neji answered, "But I talked to her yesterday, and she seemed very depressed about it. I have almost no doubt that this is something she would do."

"If you're so sure, can you bring her back?"

"I don't have a lead on where Naruto is, but I am sure Hokage-sama knows. I can gather up my team and go find him."

"Do it." Hiashi said, "But if you don't bring her back soon, Hanabi will be named the new heir. There is only so long I can hold off the Hyuuga council before they demand that I take the title away from her."

"We'll leave within the hour." Neji said, and within that instant he disappeared.

Hiashi looked hopeful, his eyes glazed over as he seemed to be looking into the distance, but Hanabi was fuming, and left the room by slamming the door shut.

XxXxXxX

At the Hokage Tower Kakashi was walking up to the office to turn in his border patrol report. He had seen no unusual activities to suggest that Sasuke had been the ones to kill the other patrols, it could have just as well have been bandits that got a lucky surprise attack. However, as he was walking towards the door, Neji ran in front of him, following by Kiba who was yelling at Neji. Then came Lee who was shouting about being Youthful. At the very end was Tenten, who held her head in her hand in shame, Shino, who seem to not have a care in the world, and – oh god.

"Kakashi! It's so good to see you here!"

"Nice to see you Gai." Kakashi sighed, "Why are so many kids here today?"

"It would seem that Neji wants to go find his cousin. She ran away apparently." Kurenai walked forward, "But my team is also requesting permission to go find her."

"I see…"

"Ah, but Kakashi, it seems your dear student Sakura has also ran away!" Gai said in his usual over-dramatic voice.

"Oh?"

"Yep." Asuma said walking towards them, "Tsunade just hired my team to go get her back to the village." The rest of Team 10 was following behind him.

"This is an interesting situation." Kakashi mumbled, "Any idea where she could be?"

"No." Shikamaru said, "But she couldn't have gone far, if I am to guess where she is heading it would be to Naruto, and Tsunade told me that he is either in or heading to Wave Country, so that is where we're going."

Choji nodded along just eating his chips, while Ino rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, why would she run away though? It's such a childish thing to do."

"It doesn't matter." Asuma said, as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, "It's our job to bring her back. B-rank pay is very unusual for a mission like this though." He said looking thoughtful.

"Does Hokage-sama believe she is going to fight back?" Kakashi asked.

"Don't know." Asuma said, "Regardless, we're going to get her now." He allowed himself and his team to go by.

Kakashi just stood where he was, unsure if he should be doing something to stop this, or watch as it all unfolded in front of him.

XxXxXxX

Naruto sneezed several times. _Hehe, someone must be talking about me! _He thought to himself as he continued on his journey to Wave Country. It was now a little pass eight, and the sun was beginning to set in the distance. It allowed a nice orange hue to light the sky, and still left enough light to guide Naruto.

"I should almost be there now." He muttered, and just as soon as he said that he made a sharp turn on the road he was on and came face to face with the bridge he helped build all those years ago. He couldn't help but smile as he looked at it, and all the memories from two years ago flooded back into him. He froze as he glanced at the name of the bridge. There was a huge sign above it, clearing saying, 'Great Naruto Bridge.'

"No way!" He exclaimed as he continued to look at it, as if it was going to disappear and the real name of the bridge would appear there instead. However, that was not the case, and he laughed as he walked onto the bridge and onward towards the town.

Traffic on the bridge was light at this hour in the night, but there were still people walking back and forth. A few carts being pulled with goods, and other things were making their way along the length of the bridge.

"I am glad the bridge really did help them." He said, walking at a leisure pace across it.

The setting sun unfortunately was not setting into the water, and instead was setting into a mass of trees to the west. Regardless of that, many people seem to be watching it with their families, as the orange sun reflected off the water on the bridge, creating a breath taking sight. Unfortunately it set, and the light of day was quickly fading.

Suddenly lanterns set up along the bridge at different intervals turned on, and Naruto was thankful to that. He was able to make his way across the bridge and into the town. Naruto was taken aback by how busy the place still was, even though the sun had set. Right when he left the bridge a large inn was situated, which was currently jammed packed with people.

Wanting to avoid that for now, but keeping the location of the building in his mind, Naruto continued to walk along in the town towards where he remembered where Tazuna's house might still be. Walking along he couldn't help but smile at how great this place turned out to be.

After about a half hour of navigating, he came across a house where he thought the bridge builder and his family might live. Working up his courage, he went up to the place and knocked on the door. There was a shout, and within seconds the door was opened by a small little kid.

"Who is it?" He asked not even looking, but when he turned around, his eyes widened considerably, "Naruto?"

"Nice to see you again too." Naruto said, waving.

"NARUTO!" He screamed, "Hey mom! Guess who's here!"

Tsunami ran over upon hearing her son yelling for her, and stopped in shock of seeing who was at the door. "Naruto!"

"Hey! Nice to see you too!"

She didn't waste any time and quickly hugged Naruto where he stood, squeezing him for all he was worth. Right before Naruto thought he was going to be knocked unconscious she let go, "I am so glad you're here." She said, "I have been wondering when you'd visit. Is the rest of your team here with you?"

"No." He said, "I am on a training trip alone, so I thought I would come and visit you guys."

"That is so thoughtful!" She gushed and hugged him once again.

"W- Where is Tazuna?" Naruto asked regaining his breath, "Is he home?"

"Dad is still working." She sighed, "He pretty much leads the town, no matter how much he constantly denies it."

"Wow! He really got that far?"

"Yep!" Inari said, "It's really awesome!"

"That is so cool." Naruto said, laughing, "He all ready beat me to my dream!"

"Don't worry Naruto, we'll still root for you." Tsunami said, "Why don't you come in and eat." She stood aside so Naruto could get in.

"Thank you."

Eating a cook meal was god sent, and Naruto swore that he would never taken any food for granted, as long as it was warm, it was good in his book. He was able to get his own room as well, and unfortunately that night he was unable to see Tazuna, much to his disappointment. However, he went to sleep almost instantly after hitting the pillow of his bed.

XxXxXxX

Gaara traveled through the forest well into the early morning hours. He decided to jump on the branches of the trees to make it to the village faster. He knew that within a few more hours he should reach the place, and then he could ask about Naruto.

At around eight in the morning he reached the gates, and walked up to the Chunin who were standing guard.

"I wish to enter your village."

"Who are you?"

"Gaara."

"Wait, that kid from Suna? Why do you want to enter our village?"

The men were on edge, but otherwise showed no other outward signs of being afraid, which pleased Gaara.

"I want to talk to Naruto."

"Well, you won't find him in the village then."

"Why?"

"Do you really expect us to tell you? You're not of our village."

"Please." Gaara said, "I must see him, I mean him nor Konoha no harm. I just really need to talk to him."

The two guards exchanged a look, and finally one shrugged after looking at Gaara for a little bit. "He left on a training trip." The man on the left said, "From what I heard a lot of people are looking for him right now."

"I see." Gaara let out a sigh; _I shouldn't have expected this to be easy._ Can you tell me where he is?"

"In Wave Country."

"Thank you."

"Wait – you're just leaving?"

"Yes. I got the information I needed, and now I want to go."

Both of the Chuunin guards looked at him for the longest moment before letting out a sigh. The one of the right just nodded his head, "Fine, you can go. Be careful though."

"Thank you."

With that Gaara went to go find Naruto once more.

XxXxXxX

In Suna there was one building in particular with two people looking furiously for one other.

"Where is Gaara?" Temari screamed, "He should be here!"

"I don't know!" Kankuro yelled back, "He should have been back here a while ago!"

"Damn it!" She muttered under her breath, "Was there anything that he was doing to give a clue about where he is, or anything?"

"He seemed to brood a little more, but other than that I noticed no-" He suddenly paused, and thought back to when Gaara was telling him about what he planned to do.

_I wish to be like Naruto. I want to protect and love this village. I will be the best person I can be for the people here._

"Shit."

"What?" Temari asked.

"I think he went to find that Naruto kid."

"The one we helped when he was going after Sasuke?"

"Yeah."

"That's all the way in the Fire Country." Temari sighed, "We have to go get him back though, do you think Baki can keep tabs on the village while we're going to get him back?"

"He'll do it." Kankuro said, "He doesn't have a choice."

The two of them packed that morning, preparing to go get their younger brother back.

Chapter two - END

A/N – I must admit, I had fun making everyone connect the person missing to Naruto in some way. Don't worry, this story will eventually have conflict, but right now it's just building up to the true beginning. Also, the next chapter will focus a lot more on the people actually missing. This one is pretty much a "oh god we really screwed this up" chapter for everyone involved with the people missing.

Will it take me 3 more years to get chapter 3 out? Who knows?

I decided to divide the chapters so it would be easier to read.


	3. Chapter 3

Before we begin, there is something I feel that needs to be address. The reason that Jiraiya is not training Naruto back in Chapter one is really, really weak. I am probably going to go back and rewrite that portion later on, because it's such a stupid excuse.

Also, I will not use any honorifics from now on. I don't even really know when to use any of them besides chan and sama, and truthfully I don't want to deal with them at all if I only know what a few of them mean.

That being said, enjoy chapter 3.

"Speaking"

_Thinking_

Having spent two days travelling at full speed towards Wave Country, barely stopping for a short rest along the way, Sakura and Hinata were both exhausted. However, they knew that Tsunade knew they were gone now, and while Sakura wasn't as big of a deal, the fact that Hinata had run away certainly posed a problem for the Hyuuga clan, and there was no doubt that there would be ninja from Konoha looking all over for her.

They hadn't talked much along the way, just jumped onto branch after branch most of the time, while stopping a short while to have something to eat and sleep. However, at the speed they were going, they were bound to reach their destination soon. A normal person took roughly two weeks to get from the Wave Country's border to Konoha, however, a ninja who used chakra to boost their speed, and who did not sleep much at all, could cut that time down significantly.

Of course, that doesn't mean it didn't cost them anything. As mentioned before, both were exhausted from exerting so much energy, and they were both dangerously close to blacking out now.

Hinata jumped from a branch, attempting to reach another, but stumbled when she landed. Her eyes widened as she began to fall off, but she was saved by Sakura, who had jumped above her and grabbed her flailing arms.

"Be careful Hinata." Sakura said, pulling the girl up.

"I'm sorry, Hinata said regaining her balance on the branch, and allowing herself a few minutes to rest.

"We should be there very soon." Sakura said, "Then we can try to find Naruto, and I think I know where he is."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Sakura said, "We visited this place a few years ago, and saved the town from a guy named Gato."

"Y- you saved a town with your Genin squad?"

"Yeah." Sakura laughed, "Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't have it any other way."

At the mention of Sasuke, Sakura's mood seemed to drop tenfold. _I can't believe Tsunade told me that there was no hope for him. I can't believe it... _She glanced back up at Hinata, who was staring at her with an eyebrow raised, "Sorry, just thinking about something."

"About Sasuke?"

"Was it that obvious?"

Hinata had a light smile on her face, "Yes, it was."

"I just can't believe Tsunade said to me that he was too corrupted and other things like that!"

"She said that?" Hinata asked, surprised.

"Yes! Can you believe her? Why would she say that to me?"

"There must have been a reason she said it to you." Hinata insisted.

"Well, she thought that he was the reason I became a ninja, or something like that, I don't know, she was drunk when she was telling me at the time."

"D- did you do it for him?"

"Do what?"

"Become a ninja."

Sakura paused for a few seconds, "No." She said at last.

"I see."

"Do you not believe me?"

Hinata eyes widened, "N- no! I b- believe y- you." Her fingers were touching the tip of one another, and she hid her face under her long hair, mumbling apologies.

Sakura sighed; something was going to have to be done with this girl's confidence. For now though, she stood up and looked ahead, "I can smell salt."

Hinata was still mumbling, having not heard her.

"Hinata, we're close to Naruto."

"Really?" Hinata stood, "What makes you say that?"

"I can smell salt, we're close to the ocean, and that means that Wave Country is really close. Once we cross the border the village is almost right there."

Hinata sniffed the air, "I can smell it to."

"Good." Sakura said, "Let's go."

XxXxXxX

Naruto had been hard at work in the outskirts of the village, attempting to train, but it came to him in a realization that hit him like a brick. Being self taught was far more difficult than having a teacher. He had no clue what to do, or how to go about training. At first he just practiced fighting an invisible enemy, but that didn't seem to be working, he was just hitting thin air, and while he was certainly getting a good work out, he felt that there had to be more he could do.

That was when he found his answer in Inari.

He had been walking back to the house when he saw Inari carrying a bunch of logs back to his house for the fire that night.

"Need any help?" Naruto asked.

"Sure!" Inari answered, "These things are heavy."

"They are." Naruto said, and easily lifted up three times more that Inari could.

Inari and Naruto walked back to the house, and they dumped the logs outside the door.

"I love it when I drop them, because I feel so light."

"Yeah, it reminds me of Lee, and his..." His eyes widened, and he slammed the palm of his hand right into his forehead, "How could I be so stupid?"

"What?"

"I need weights!"

"Huh?"

"For training!"

"Oh! I could take you downtown – there are a lot of ninja that pass by here for the night, and that means there is almost always a shop with scrolls and other things a ninja would want! Then I can finally take you to see Tazuna!"

"You're a life saver Inari!" Naruto said.

"Thanks! I usually don't go down there much because I hate crowds, but it shouldn't be a problem. Plus, I want to see grandpa."

Naruto nodded, "Why hasn't he come home for the past two days?"

"He has a lot of problems to deal with now that the town is like it is. There are a lot of people insisting that he set up a tax to use the bridge, but he keeps shooting it down. I have heard it has gotten pretty violent now…"

"Hm, maybe I could help?"

"Don't worry about it." Inari said waving it off, "They wouldn't do anything to grandpa, especially since he made everything good that has happened to this town possible."

The two walked towards the town after dropping off the logs, and Naruto pulled out his wallet, and made sure that Jiraiya hadn't stolen his money yet again. Thankfully there was still quite a decent amount in there, so he should have no problems.

The streets of the town were bustling with people from all over. Naruto glanced at all the stalls, and stands, and it reminded him of the market place back in Konoha. _I think I am starting to get a little homesick. I wonder how Sakura is doing _His good mood deflated at that. He was sure that Sakura was be furious with him for what he has done, running away from the one man assigned to train him.

_I am sure if she knew the whole story she wouldn't mind _He thought to himself, but that did little abate his worries.

Thankfully he didn't have long to think, because Inari dragged him off to a large stand and pointed it out, "Whenever I come here this is where all the ninja who travel here gather."

Naruto glanced upward at the stall, and sure enough there were several men and women looking at the wares of the stand. Kunai lined up the wall behind the owner, along with scrolls labeled wind, fire, earth, and so on. On the front counter there were tons of weights that were meant to be tied around the wrist and legs, along with a bunch of tags, which Naruto assumed were explosive notes.

"Can I help you?" The large owner asked. He had sun glasses on, and a long moustache going down his face. His hair was covered by a black bandana, and he wore a black vest. His muscles seemed almost unreal.

Naruto looked up at the intimidating owner, "I need some weights."

"We have a lot of weights kid, how much do you want?"

"How much?"

"They come in pounds. They start at ten and go up ten each time from there. From the looks of it, you'd probably want to start at around thirty for your legs, and twenty for your wrists."

"What? Why such a small number?"

The man laughed, "Small? Kid, even at ten pounds you would be hard pressed to fight effectively. The added weights will not long make you slower, but change how much force you need to put into an attack to make it effective, it will change the trajectory, meaning you'd have to punch slightly higher than you normally would, because the weights would pull down your arm as you punch, no matter how much force you put behind it."

"Oh."

"Look, my original numbers were what I would recommend for you. However, you're the one with the money, so whatever you want is fine with me."

"I want double of what you said!"

The man let out a long haggard sigh, "If you say so kid." He pulled out a set of weights for Naruto's legs labeled as 60 pounds, and two for his wrist at forty pounds.

"Thank you." Naruto pulled out the right amount of ryou for the weights, and then pointed at the scrolls, "Can I have some of those?"

"What is your chakra's affinity?"

"What?"

The man rolled his eyes, "Kid, your chakra can use one of five elements. Well, at your age at least, as you get older you can have up to three, but that is rare."

"Oh, so how do I find out my affinity?"

"Here." He handed Naruto a piece of paper.

"Um?"

"Push chakra into it kid, jeez."

Naruto did as he was instructed, and the paper suddenly split in half down the center. Inari, who was watching raised an eyebrow and decided to comment, "Did he do it right?"

"Yep." The store owner said, "I am surprised kid, I haven't seen a Wind affiliation is quite some time."

"Wind? Is that good?"

"It's the most destructive one, and very powerful, though in turn it is also the most difficult to master. You have a lot of work ahead of you if you plan on mastering it."

"I bet I can master this in a week."

"Sure thing, kid." The man laughed, as he handed Naruto a Wind Scroll, "Just be sure to stay far away from anyone else when you do these exercises. They can cause serious harm to anyone nearby when they go wrong."

"Got it!" Naruto said, snatching the scroll away from the man, and threw some more of his money to the man, "Awesome! I can finally begin for real now!"

"Nice to meet you-"

"Just call me Koga."

"Ok. Nice to meet you Koga, I hope to see you around soon." Naruto said pocketing the scroll.

"Ok kid; go have fun with your new toys."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the man, and turned around with Inari in tow. With that ordeal out of the way, they chose to sit down at a bench real quick while Naruto strapped his new weights to himself. Inari sat silently for a little while, waiting for Naruto to finish.

"Do you think I could be a ninja?"

Naruto looked towards Inari's questioning face, "Well, it's a lot of work, and I started way earlier than you, but if you put your mind to it I am sure you could do it." Naruto finished off with his trademark smile.

Inari smiled as well, "So, ready to go see Grandpa?"

"Yeah, you know where he is?"

"Yep, just follow me."

Inari led Naruto out of the street with all the shops set up, and turned towards a large building in what he assumed was the center of the town. Inari gripped Naruto's hand, and led the boy through two men standing outside guarding it, both were obviously not ninja, and Naruto could have easily handled them, but there was no need, upon seeing Inari both men relaxed and allowed them entry.

"You think they'd ask questions." Naruto wondered aloud.

"They can trust me." Inari said, "They know I wouldn't bring someone bad in here."

With that established Inari, led Naruto through a long hallway, and at the end opened a door where a man was sitting behind a desk, leaning back in his chair his head faced towards the ceiling, rubbing his temple in annoyance.

"Grandpa! You would never guess who came to visit?"

"Inari, good to see you." The man stopped leaning back, and when he head got leveled, his mouth fell to the ground.

"Hey!"

"Naruto! It's been too long!" Tazuna laughed, "It's super good to see you!"

"Yeah, I am sorry I haven't visited." Naruto apologized, rubbing the back of his head.

"Please, I know you're busy, being a ninja and all, besides, I probably wouldn't have had much time to see you anyway."

"So I noticed." Naruto commented, "You haven't been home for two days."

"Ah, you've been here that long? And Inari, I am so sorry; it's just been so busy at work lately. I have had to stay up well into the morning, and then it all starts over again."

Naruto looked closely at Tazuna, and it didn't take long for him to notice the man had visible bags under his eyes, and his movements were all very stiff.

"You shouldn't work yourself so hard." Naruto said upon seeing how the man looked.

"Bah! You kids always think I can't handle myself! Look, I am fine!" He stood up and flexed his arms, "There is no need to worry."

Naruto let the issue drop, not wanting to start anything awkward with his friend, especially with the man's son in the room. Tazuna offered Naruto a seat, and pulled out a jug of whisky, and offered it to him where he was sitting with Inari.

"No thanks." Naruto mumbled.

"Oh come on! Just one for old time's sake?"

Naruto sighed, and grabbed a glass, "Just because you're my friend."

"That's the spirit boy!"

Inari just sat beside Naruto shaking his head.

XxXxXxX

Gaara stopped in his tracks. He was about a day and a half away from Wave Country, due to the fact that he traveled constantly, never feeling the need to sleep, and the demon inside of him providing more than enough energy. He looked around, feeling a chakra signature nearby, and allowed the sand of his gourd to fall to the ground and cover it, giving him an advantage.

However, he soon realized that the person was in the trees, and that his advantage wasn't going to be worth much. Before he could move however, he felt the person arrive.

"Yo!"

Gaara looked upward at the tree the man was standing on, and upon seeing the bandana covering his eye, he let his guard down a fraction, "Kakashi."

Kakashi jumped down into the sand, and spoke, "Here, I gave you the advantage. I don't want to fight you."

"What do you want then?"

"You're going to see Naruto, right?"

"Yes." Gaara said, unsure of why the man was asking.

"Mind if I come with you? I wouldn't mind seeing my cute student again." His smile was visible through his mask.

"I could feel other people yesterday going in this same direction, why is that?"

"Oh, well it seems Sakura and the heiress to the Hyuuga clan have run away, and everyone connected it to Naruto. So they're going to find him so they can find them."

"A clan heir?"

"Yep. It's causing quite an uproar in Konoha right now.

"I see."

"So can I go with you?"

"You must have another reason for wanting to come other than that."

Kakashi was silent for a moment, before letting out a loud sigh, "I can't get anything pass you kids anymore." He shrugged, "Tsunade told me that Naruto ran away from Jiraiya to train on his own, and she wanted me to go give him back to Jiraiya."

"Why can't Jiraiya do this on his own?"

"Tsunade told me that he would probably get distracted with something while in the town, so she wanted me to go do it just in case."

"I see. You can travel with me for now."

With that Gaara gathered up his sand, and allowed the man to come with him. All the while the demon was driving him insane in his head, telling him to kill Kakashi the whole time. Ignoring it though, he continued on.

XxXxXxX

"Wow, this place has sure prospered in the two years I have been away." Sakura said as she looked out at the bridge. It was mid day, and there were dozens of people walking the length of the bridge, conversing with one another, and generally have a good time.

Hinata was looking upward though, and Sakura followed her gaze.

"Great Naruto Bridge? The hell?"

"T- this town must really have liked him."

"Yeah, but it doesn't even mention the rest of us!"

Hinata didn't have a rebuttal to that, so they continued on their way.

"Do you know where to go?" Hinata quietly asked.

"Yeah, we're going to see Tsunami. She's the person that took care of us when we were on our mission here; I think you'll like her."

Hinata nodded, and the two went on their way across the bridge. Upon crossing, Sakura grabbed Hinata's hand and led her through the crowd of people walking around, and after a short while arrived on the outskirts of the town.

"The house should be around here…" She mumbled to herself, and continued to lead Hinata around.

Roughly ten minutes later Sakura finally came across the place and went up to the door and knocked on it. Hinata was acting nervous, shuffling her feet, and looking down at the ground. Sakura took a single glance back at the girl and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, who is-" She stopped, "Sakura!"

Sakura suddenly felt herself in a bone-crushing hug, gasping for breath.

"It's so good to see you again!"

"Y- You… too…"

Tsunami let go, "Sorry, it's just been so long…"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She said waving it off, "Who's your friend here?"

"This is Hinata." Sakura stood aside, practically pushing Hinata forward.

"H- Hi."

"You're so adorable!" Tsunami cooed, and hugged the quickly blushing, and mumbling girl.

Sakura managed to pry the older woman off Hinata, and asked, "So, is Naruto around here?"

"Oh yes, he has been staying for the past few days. Though he said that he was the only one here, he never mentioned you would be coming!"

Sakura and Hinata both let out a sigh of relief, _Thank you Naruto, for being your normal predictable self!_

"I came on my own; Naruto doesn't know that I am here."

"Ah, I bet he'll be so surprised to see you, it was so obvious that he liked you back then – are you two together now?"

Sakura couldn't help but let a blush come up, "N- No!"

"Ah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked such an awkward question."

Hinata felt a stab of jealously go through her heart, and he showed. She gritted her teeth, and looked away from the two, and quickly recomposed herself. Thankfully, Tsunami didn't notice, unfortunately Sakura noticed, but wisely decided to stay quiet about it.

"Don't worry about it. Do you know where Naruto is?"

"He went into town with Inari, and- Oh! Look, there he is!"

Both girls turned around quickly, and to their happiness they saw Naruto.

"Naruto!" Both exclaimed at the same time. Hinata stood where she was, blushing too hard, and busy looking for anything interesting to look at other than Naruto, but Sakura rushed forward towards him, but stopped quickly upon smelling alcohol.

"Heys… Nari, she look like a frien o' mine back in Ko- Ko- Konana." Naruto slurred out, his steps seem to slip every time he moved, even though he was standing on grass.

"Narudo, I tink that is er'!" Inari said, obviously as wasted as Naruto was.

"Ya don't say?" Naruto walked towards Sakura.

"Naruto, why the hell are you drunk?" Sakura asked, while Hinata and especially Tsunami looked on in horror.

"Me? Drunk? Naw!" He stepped forward one more step, "Y'know Sakura, you look pretty…" With that he fell forward onto his face, out like a light. Sakura had a small blush appear at his words.

"Hah hah…" Inari walked over to Naruto, "You fell!" He laughed a little more before falling right on top of Naruto, fast asleep.

"Well, so much for first impressions." Sakura sighed, rubbing her head, "Somehow this doesn't disappoint me though. I guess it's because I was expecting something to happen."

"INARI! Why are you drunk?! Oh when dad gets home I am going to beat the ever living crap out of him!"

Hinata walked forward and looked on at the two sleeping bodies, "S- Should we move them inside now?"

XxXxXxX

Naruto opened his eyes suddenly, and looked around. _What happened? _He began to think back, _I got a scroll, some weights, and went to visit Tazuna, then he offered me some alcohol. _He nodded; _I could have sworn I saw Sakura as well. _He chuckled, and began to get out of his bed, _Hah; I doubt she would be out here. I must have really been drunk. That is the last time I ever accept any form of alcohol. What was that stuff anyway, Gin?_

He shook his head, _who cares? _He looked around and noticed that it was dark outside, and then he realized one other thing, "I have to go to the bathroom."

With the goal now in his head he got onto his feet and walked towards the bathroom.

XxXxXxX

Sakura heard some noise coming from the outside of the room Tsunami let her and Hinata borrow, and got to her feet quickly. She soon let her guard down and opened her door, and looked outside the room. Hinata was still fast asleep, _probably because the mansion is always being patrolled by guards. _She mused.

She opened the door and walked around in the hallway, and heard a door shut ahead of her. She realized it was the bathroom door. _I wonder if Naruto is in there._ She decided to stand next to the door and wait for a little bit.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for the toilet to flush, and Naruto to walk out stretching his arms, "Man, I feel better now."

"Long time no see."

Naruto turned to his left where Sakura was leaning against the wall, a smile creeping up on her face. Upon seeing here, Naruto rubbed his eyes and looked again. "Sakura?" Her smile was her answer, "Holy crap! Sakura, what are you doing here? Why are you here?"

"Jeez, it's nice to see you."

"hehe." He laughed lightly, "Sorry about that. It's really good to see you Sakura, more than you know."

"That's more like it." She said folding her arms and nodding approvingly.

"Ok, but why are you here?"

"I came to find you. I got your letter that was saying that you though Jiraiya wasn't training you, and I asked Tsunade about it, and you wouldn't believe what she said, it was all intentional!"

"What? Jiraiya not training me was intentional?" He asked.

"Yeah, she was mumbling about how you were going to run away from Jiraiya if that happened – where is he anyway?"

"Eh heheh…"

"You didn't." When he didn't answer she slammed her first upon his head, "You moron! Do you seriously think it is a good idea to run away from him? Who is going to teach you anything?"

"Sakura, please, I actually thought ahead for this." He pulled the sleeve of his jumpsuit down to reveal a set of weights tied to his wrist, "I found out that training without someone to teach me is a lot harder than I thought, so I went and got these." He then pulled out the scroll he had bought, "I also got this Wind scroll. The man at the stand had me test out my chakra and it was Wind."

"Naruto…" She looked towards him, "I am impressed."

He let out a genuine laugh, "Sakura, like I said before, it's so nice to see you again, really, you're quite a sight for sore eyes, but what're you doing here other than trying to find me?"

"My original plan was to find you and Jiraiya and follow you guys for the remaining year or so you guys would be out." She pulled out the letter Naruto gave her, "You wrote that you were close to here, so I figured that you would be here."

"Well, what's your plan now?"

"I am going to stay with you I guess, I can't go back now."

Naruto was in hog heaven; his thoughts were all centered around him and Sakura travelling together, alone, of all things. Then what she said truly registered in his mind, "What do you mean you can't go back?"

"I sort of left without permission."

"What?" Naruto jaw fell open, "You willingly went out, knowing that Tsunade would send people to bring you back?"

"Yeah, looking back at it, I suppose it was a stupid idea…"

"Stupid? Hell no! That is one of the most awesome things you have done!" He laughed, "I wish I could have seen the look on the old hags face when she realized you were gone! It must have been hilarious!"

Sakura smiled, for some reason glad to have Naruto's approval of the situation.

"It's just going to be the two of us, it will be awesome Sakura, we can go figure out what your chakra affinity is and-"

"Oh yeah! Hinata came with me too."

Naruto's disappointment was clear as daylight was bright. "Really? The really weird girl?"

She lightly punched Naruto on the shoulder, "Be nice Naruto, I found her along the way and offered her to come. I figured Jiraiya could teach her something, or help her boost her confidence so she could go back to her clan."

"Wait. Isn't she the heir to the clan?"

"Yeah, she ran away too."

Naruto's eyes widened, "She ran away from the Hyuuga clan? That. Is. Amazing."

"I don't know Naruto, me running away causes a few problems, but her running away causes a multitude of problems. The only reason I didn't send her back myself was because I was running away as well. You should really talk to her about it, I don't know if it is smart to keep her with us. The Hyuuga could claim we were holding her away or something."

"Bah, I doubt Tsunade would allow any of those claims to go through."

"Regardless, we should try to convince her to go back."

Naruto inwardly smiled, _it would just be Sakura and I, that would be awesome. _He then shook his head. _No, I can't think like that. Hinata is one of us, if she wants to stay, I won't force her to go away. _

"Naruto?" She watched him shaking his head and nod along to nothing. It was beginning to concern her.

"Oh, sorry. I think it's Hinata's choice Sakura. I am not going to force her to go back home. If she wants to stay then she can stay."

"You're probably right." Sakura ceded, "It's her choice."

"Ok, tomorrow we can go to the place I went to get this scroll and get you and Hinata some weights! Maybe even figure out your chakra affinity!"

"That sounds good." She agreed, "Hinata and I also need to go get some new clothes. She left on the spur of the moment and brought nothing else but the things on her back, and I only brought one other outfit."

Naruto's grin waned a little bit, wondering how much of his remaining money would he have after tomorrow.

"Good night Naruto and one more thing." She closed the gap between them and gave him a small hug, "You're a good sight for sore eyes too."

She then parted and walked back to her room, leaving Naruto practically melting in the spot he stood. He shook out of his stupor soon after though, and whistled a tune on his way back to his room, while nearly skipping the whole way.

XxXxXxX

The next morning was rather weird for Naruto. He woke up and went downstairs for breakfast, and saw Inari there moaning lightly while he held his head in his hands. Sakura was sitting beside the boy with her hands glowing a slight green color and hovering them a few inches away from the boys head.

However, that wasn't the weird part, the weirdest part was when he entered, he heard a loud "Eep!" behind him, and someone quickly running back upstairs. This made Sakura let out a drawn out sigh, and leave the room, leaving the three people alone.

"What just happened?"

"Sakura was checking using her medical jutsu to make my headache hurt less."

"Ah, so you got a hangover." Naruto laughed, but stopped when Tsunami glared at him, "Right, so that was medical jutsu?"

"Yeah, it was working too before she had to leave. Why don't you have a hangover?"

"I just get over things quickly!" Naruto smiled at the boy, "Don't worry, you'll be able to handle more the older you get!"

"Urgh, I don't think I ever want to drink anymore of that crap for the rest of my life."

"That's good Inari, if only your grandfather would do that too." Tsunami said, serving him some eggs and bacon, "Your grandpa always said eggs and bacon makes it go away sooner, so eat up!" She put some on Naruto's plate, and then two other plates placed on the opposite side of the table from them.

The two boys wasted no time in eating their food, and it was then that Sakura came in followed by Hinata. Hinata was blushing like mad, and her teeth were biting her lower lip, and each step she took was very shaky.

"Are you all right Hinata?" Naruto asked, forgoing his originally planned greeting.

"F- F- Fine." She said only slightly above a whisper.

"If you say so." Naruto replied, "It's good to see you by the way."

This only intensified her blush, and she quickly retreated out of the room once again.

Sakura moaned and smacked her forehead, "Forget it."

"What is wrong with her Sakura?" Naruto glance up questioning at her.

_Only Naruto wouldn't see it._ Sakura reflected, "Nothing to be concerned about." She sat down across from Naruto and looked at her breakfast, "Thank you Tsunami."

"Oh, you're very welcome Sakura!"

They all ate in silence, after that, well, as silent as two boys mowing down their food can be. Halfway through the meal, Hinata finally came in and sat beside Sakura, and began to eat. Thankfully for her, Naruto was too busy with his food to interact with her, so she had no more reasons to rush out of the room.

XxXxXxX

After their rather messy breakfast, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Inari all went out to get their supplies. It didn't take long for Naruto to spot the stand where he got his weights from, and he quickly pointed it out to Sakura and Hinata. Koga noticed the boy coming, and saw the two girls to whom he was point out the store to.

"Hey Koga!"

"Welcome back kid, are your weights holding up ok?"

"Yeah! They're awesome!" Naruto said pumping his arm, "I feel stronger all ready!"

The man nodded, "So who're your friends?"

"Ah, this is Sakura and Hinata!"

"Nice to meet you girls, I'm Koga and this is my shop. Let me guess, you want some weights, right?"

"Yes please." Sakura said, Hinata said nothing, but nodded quickly.

"Well, the brat got weights that were far over what I would recommend, so do you guys want me to double what I would suggest for you?"

"What would you suggest for us?" Sakura asked.

"Ten pounds for your arms, twenty for your legs."

"That seems like a lot." Sakura noted.

"Go for it guys! You'll get twice as strong with double!" Naruto cheered on.

Koga rolled his eyes, but didn't bother to correct the kid on anything.

"Ok, we'll get them doubled." Sakura said, and Naruto cheered behind her. Hinata looked hesitantly over at her, but decided to not say anything. They both accepted the weights the man handed to them.

"Can they test their chakra too?"

"Yeah, yeah." The man handed both a piece of paper, "Push some chakra into it."

Both did as they were told. Sakura's immediately crumbled up, and Hinata's suddenly got very damp.

"Lightning and Water, not bad." He then got the scrolls for those specific jutsu's and gave those to the two girls as well. Naruto grabbed his frog wallet and paid the man off, "Thank you for coming, be careful with those. Fortunately water is a lot safer to work with than Wind and Lightning, but you." He said pointing to Sakura, "Be careful where you play around with that scroll. You could seriously harm someone."

"Wait, why is water safe to work with, but not wind or lightning?" Naruto asked.

"If a lightning jutsu fails it sends a huge electric discharge all around the person attempting to use the jutsu. It will shock the person who failed it, but not close to how badly it could hurt people around. If a wind jutsu fails, it will send razor sharp wind enhanced chakra everywhere, cutting clearly into trees and even other people if they are close. The user will fortunately only get a few cuts. However, if a water jutsu fails, it will simply get a bunch of harmless water everywhere."

"S- So does that m- mean water is weak?"

"No, that doesn't mean that at all." Koga explained, "Water is the gentlest element of the five you can possess, more often than not it is meant to help people. That is why most medic-nin are water affinity."

"I see." Sakura mumbled, glancing down at the scroll of lightning.

"Thanks Koga!" Naruto waved to the man, "We'll be back!"

"I look forward to it kid." The man said as he counted the money he just earned.

The three teens walked away from the stand and started wandering down the street looking for clothing stores. During the walk, Sakura continued to look down at her scroll, and was deep in thought. "You ok Sakura?" Naruto asked, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

"I guess. I am just surprised I got lightning and not water. Tsunade was always telling me that she had no doubt that my chakra was water affiliated."

"Don't worry about it Sakura! You can have more than one as you get older!"

She nodded, "I guess. I am just surprised, that's all. It kind of reminds me of Sasuke."

At the mention of that name Naruto's smile dropped, "We'll get him back."

"Yeah, I know."

Hinata didn't know what to say, or if she even could, so she just stayed back from the two of them and was looking through her scroll. Inari meanwhile was back with Hinata looking at the scroll, occasionally asking the timid girl what something meant.

_Should I tell him about Sasuke? _Sakura wondered to herself, _No, I shouldn't put a burden on him like that. _She concluded, and the four of them continued on their way.

XxXxXxX

"We're here." Gaara said to Kakashi as they both landed in the forest next to the bridge.

"Good, we need to find my students and then-"

Gaara used his sand to knock the man out from behind. It was a low blow, but the Jounin should have seen it coming. "Thank you for leading me here." He said and walked towards the village with the gourd of sand firmly attached to his back.

The rest of the Konoha ninja were roughly six to eight hours behind him, and he had to find Naruto and warn him before they came. _They probably mean him no harm, but I will not allow them to take him away to do something he doesn't want to do while I am here. _He walked out to the bridge and began to go across from it.

_**That Sakura girl is here – I can feel her. Can we finish her off this time?**_

_Shut up. _

_**I know you want to kill all these people, look at them! All wandering around without a care in the world!**_

_Naruto is here as well, remember how he managed to beat you?_

At that Shukaku fell silent, and Gaara was caught off balance for a moment. It was so rare when the demon stopped talking to him that he relished the time that he could think without the voice constantly telling him to kill people. However, now was not a time to think, he had to find Naruto, and get answers from him.

The sooner the better.

Chapter 3 END

A/N – Had a lot of fun writing this chapter. If you guys haven't guessed by now, dialogue is by far my favorite thing to write above all else. Action, detail, none of it is good without dialogue in my opinion! Thank you for reading, and I feel I should explain when this story updates:

Every Monday and Wednesday are when it is most likely to be updated, because I work those days and I have a LOT of free time during my job. It might be updated on the weekend if I feel like doing it then, but otherwise don't expect it to be.

Thank you for reading this far! I expect to see you all in Chapter 4! In which the story truly begins in my eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello and welcome to chapter 4!

"Speaking"

_Thinking_

Gaara wandered into the town, and watched as people around him silently made a gap around him. Considering that he had a huge gourd tied to his back, and that he was glaring in front of him certainly helped make up people's mind about if they should be near the kid. He continually glanced left and right, as well as in front of him in hopes of seeing Naruto somewhere in the crowd of people wandering around.

Though he could feel him, he couldn't exactly pin point where he was, due to so many other chakra signatures mixed in the town as well. Regardless, he trudged forth and continued his search; sooner or later he would find Naruto.

Suddenly he felt a quick explosion of chakra before it disappeared, and he knew immediately that it was Naruto's. Everyone around him didn't even look fazed by such an occurrence, even though at least a quarter of them were ninja. _They probably feel chakra explode every day from people training._ He concluded to himself, and rushed to the source.

He ran through the crowd, and slowly they began to think out until it was just a few houses here and there and a forest. He stood still, and focused once more, hoping to feel the explosion of chakra again. It didn't even take five minutes before it happened once more, and he was off into the forest.

He knew he was close when he could focus solely on his signature and not have a ton others get in the way. He felt two others ones, one was familiar, but the other he only vaguely felt before. _That must be Sakura and Hinata._

Surprisingly Shukaku had not talked to him since the moment he told the demon that he was beaten by the person he was looking for, and while it relieved him greatly to be able to think, it was also beginning to concern him. Shukaku was never this quiet for so long before, yet he still wasn't saying anything.

Putting the thoughts in the back of his head, Gaara walked into the forest, and another explosion of chakra occurred. However, until the last times when he had to go towards the source, Naruto went flying into a tree right next to him. The boy was gasping for breath, and moaned as he rubbed his sore back.

"That guy was right, wind is really hard to use…"

"Maybe if you didn't go straight for the A-rank jutsu on the scrolls and started out at E you would improve faster!" Sakura's voice rang out, and she ran over to Naruto, but stopped dead in her tracks when she caught sight of Gaara.

_He was the one who nearly killed me._ She thought to herself, and to her horror she watched as Gaara looked up from Naruto and towards her.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, rubbing his head and getting up. He then finally looked next to him, and jumped, "Gaara! What the hell?"

"Hello." Gaara said, looking away from Sakura.

_He is good now._ She had to remind herself, but even that thought couldn't stop the oppressing feeling she had when he had nearly killed her during the Chunin exams so long ago. Just looking at the boy was making her feel it all over again.

"Sakura, are you ok?" Naruto asked, running to her side as she collapsed onto her knees, her breathing rushed, "Sakura!"

"I- I- I'm fine!" She shook him off, "I need to go." She shakily stood up and ran away from the two of them stumbling as she went.

"She still fears me." Gaara said in his monotone voice.

"Why? You saved our lives back when we were trying to get Sasuke!"

"She must not have forgiven me for crushing her when we fought."

Naruto was silent, "I guess."

"Naruto." Gaara started, "I am training to become Kazekage of my village. In about six months I would have succeeded."

"What?! You were about to become a Kage? Why would you leave?!"

"My people don't support me. Every time I go down to try and improve my relations with the villagers they always run and hide. I have funded several renovation projects my father had put off; I greatly improved relations with Konoha. I brought great prosperity to the village. Naruto, I was doing nothing wrong, yet they still hate me! I know I killed countless people there, I understand that part of regret will always linger with me. There is nothing I can do to bring back their loved ones. Naruto, how can I lead a village where everyone, even the ninja I would gain control of don't respect me?!"

By the beginning Gaara was talking in his usual monotone voice, but by the end he had started to yell, allowing the emotions he carelessly bottled up to come out.

"I don't need them to love me; I just want their respect, all of their respect! I have done everything I could have done for them, and yet I still have to do more. I don't know what else to do! I finally just ran when my last time down into the village ended badly. Naruto, no one there cares for me. You could become a Kage, you never killed people, you never even hurt others without good reasons. You have the support of your peers all around you. All I have as support is Kankuro and Temari, yet they too still tend to avoid me."

Naruto was speechless, but Gaara still wasn't done.

"I figured, they didn't need me to lead them. They all ready had a monster before in my father, and I was no different than him until a few years ago. People don't forget the past Naruto. The mental scars never leave. They will always remember me as the monster that killed their mother or father, the one who killed their wife or husband, children, grandchildren. I never discriminated against people when I was younger. I would have killed my siblings if they had gotten in my way. I was never meant for greatness Naruto, only to fade into obscurity."

At this point Gaara slowed his breathing.

_**You should kill this Kyuubi boy. **_

Gaara fell to the ground gripping his head and let out a long scream, "I want this demon out of me! It has caused nothing but trouble for me!" He gasped, crying out.

Naruto was utterly speechless. One moment he was training, and the next Gaara came to him and unleashed his thoughts and emotions onto him. Now the boy who was so strong before was on the ground gripping his head, crying out in anger.

"Gaara." Naruto finally said.

The boy looked up, but said nothing.

"You want the support and respect of the people, but you don't have it yet. Instead of being there you came out here and whined to me about how you don't have it yet? You have to earn it Gaara, and not being there isn't the way to go about doing that."

"I told you I tried! What else could I have done?"

"Be a good leader to them. It may take years, maybe decades, but they will eventually come to respect you." Naruto smiled, "Come on, you don't have it all bad, you're miles ahead of me all ready! Becoming a Kage at the age of fourteen! That's incredible!"

Gaara stood up, and sand gathered around Naruto, and quickly pinned him to the tree. Yellow chakra was seeping out of him.

"Is this some sort of game to you Naruto? You think you can just tell me that I am being stupid, that I have to earn their respect and it will make it all go away? I came to you for advice, and you have yet to give me anything. When you beat me at the Chunin exams – that is when you brought me back to sanity, it's when I realized what I did was wrong. Do I have to endanger another one of your friends to get an answer out of you again; do I have to gravely wound you?"

"Gaara! Stop!" Naruto shouted, struggling against the hold.

Gaara suddenly dropped Naruto, and the yellow chakra he was emitting stopped abruptly, "I'm so sorry Naruto…" The sand collapsed around the boy, "Shukaku got me to act in a moment of weakness."

"Are you all right Gaara?" Gaara only glared at him, "Right, stupid question. Sorry."

"I shouldn't have come." Gaara sighed, "It was a stupid mistake."

"You wanted to ask me how I do it; how to gain the appreciation of my friends and people in Konoha, right?"

"I suppose so." Gaara mumbled, "I apologize for my actions."

"Don't worry about it Gaara. I could tell you really needed to get that off your chest, and we jinchuuriki have to help each other out, right?"

"I guess I should help you out then since you allowed me to do that." Gaara stood up, "Konoha is sending a lot of people here to retrieve Sakura, and especially Hinata. They are only a few hours away about now. You have to leave now if you don't want them to catch you."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Very. I was talking to Kakashi about it."

"You talked to Kakashi?"

"Yes, but he was sent to retrieve you, so I knocked him out as soon as he led me here."

"Thanks a bunch!" Naruto smiled and gave him the thumbs up, "You're a life saver Gaara."

"Naruto." Gaara raised his hand to stop the boy from leaving just yet, "the actions you are taking are similar to a missing-nin. If you don't allow these people to send them back to Konoha, and instead run away, the Council may put a bounty up for your head. Hinata is a Hyuuga right? They could claim that you are kidnapping her, and that alone is enough for an S-rank bounty on you."

"I know the risks. Sakura went over them with me last night, and we agreed that it was her decision if she wanted to leave or not."

"This is more important than a petty decision! If she doesn't go back your life will be forfeit."

"I seriously doubt that. Granny wouldn't allow the Council to send hunter-nin after us."

"Do you have any idea on how your village politics work?" Upon seeing Naruto's expression, Gaara explained, "Tsunade is the leader of the ninja, yes; you're right on that part. However, ultimately it's the will of the council that gets followed. There's a head from every main clan in the village on it, and undoubtedly the Hyuuga are a large influence. If they vote to allow a bounty on your head, there is nothing Tsunade can do to stop them."

Naruto was silent for a moment before nodding, "You might be right Gaara, but I trust Hinata. She'll do what is best for everyone, whether it is come with me or go back, she will have our interests at heart."

Gaara didn't know how to respond to that, but tried anyway, "You put all your trust into her? What if it she doesn't have your best interests at heart?"

"It's a risk I am willing to take!"

_Is this how he gains the trust of people around him? It is almost foolish… yet… _"Naruto, I will come with you too."

"What!"

"I wish to travel with you as well, I feel I could learn a lot from you, and it will ultimately aid me in becoming a better Kage."

"Are you sure Gaara? Won't Konoha think less of Suna if they see you helping me?"

"It's a risk I am willing to take."

Upon repeating Naruto's words right back at him, Naruto smiled, "All right, you're on the team! Let's get out of here!"

XxXxXxX

Hinata was sitting by a river that ran through the forest so she could practice her water techniques. Unlike Naruto, she started with the simple ones, and was actually having a fun time floating an orb of water around when suddenly Sakura came stumbling out from the forest where Naruto went flying. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and her face was very pale.

"S- Sakura! Are you all right?" Hinata rushed over to her. When she reached Sakura's side she could see that the girl was shaking slightly, and she immediately thought the worst, "N- Naruto is hurt?"

"No, not at all." She said. Hinata allowed a sigh of relief to leave her.

"Why are you here then? W- Where is Naruto?"

"Talking with Gaara."

"G- Garaa?" Hinata asked, and when Sakura nodded her head, she could feel her heart drop. _He the one who killed those people during the Chunin exam. _She could remember the blood getting everywhere, and even Kiba had been shaking from the experience.

"Are you certain it was Gaara?"

"Yeah, I know it was him, no doubt."

"But w- why is he here? Shouldn't he be in Suna?"

"Yes!" Sakura shouted, "Look, I don't know why he is here, but I just know he is!"

"S- Sorry." Hinata looked away from Sakura.

"Crap. Hinata, I am sorry I snapped at you, I just had a really bad experience with him, and I am not glad that he is here."

"What happened?"

"I really don't want to talk about it Hinata." Sakura sighed, "I am in no mood to train right now, I have to go calm down." She walked towards where the house was.

"I think I am done too." Hinata muttered, and walked on after Sakura, tucking her scroll back into her jacket.

XxXxXxX

Asuma landed outside of the village with his team, walking over to an unconscious Kakashi. He leaned down, and slapped the man across the face, causing him to wake up.

"Welcome back Kakashi, care to explain why you're unconscious?" Asuma greeted.

"I was traveling with Gaara, that kid from Suna, and he knocked me out."

"What? Gaara?" Shikamaru asked, walking up to Kakashi, "Why was Gaara here?"

"He wanted to see Naruto. That is all he told me." Kakashi muttered, and took Asuma's hand to stand up, "I should have seen it coming though. I was so stupid to let my guard down."

"He wants to see Naruto?"

"Yes."

"Do you think he would help Naruto escape with Hinata and Sakura?"

"I am not sure." Kakashi confessed, "I have no real idea what his intention is."

"Well we can't count him out." Shikamaru sighed, "This just made things a lot more difficult."

"Are you guys expecting them to fight back?" Kakashi asked, a little surprised.

"No." Ino said, "But we always have a plan ready just in case."

"Yeah, it helps us be prepared for anything." Choji added in, chewing on some chips.

"I suppose so." Kakashi nodded, "I am going to find Jiraiya."

"Ok Kakashi, we'll be planning this out." Shikamaru said, "Ino, Choji, here's the plan."

Kakashi turned around and ran off to find Jiraiya, who no doubt was in the village now. Kakashi only hoped the man did not get distracted, and run off to do things that would infuriate the Hokage even further than she was right now.

XxXxXxX

"We have to go now." Naruto said upon entering the house. Hinata looked up from the couch she was sitting on drinking some tea with Tsunami and Inari.

"But why? You just got here!" Inari whined.

"I am sorry, but some people are trying to find me, and I don't want them to catch me."

"R- Really?" Hinata muttered, "Who?"

"I don't know, but I know Kakashi is with them."

"There were quite a bit of chakra signs." Gaara said entering the house, "Most likely over half of them were here to retrieve you." He finished pointing at Hinata.

She was quiet while she looked at Gaara with a frightened look.

"Where is Sakura?"

"She's upstairs, but Naruto, what is going on?" Tsunami asked, getting to her feet, "Do you need my help?"

"No, we just need to go now." Naruto said, "We'll be out of here in like 5 minutes." With that Naruto rushed upstairs to see Sakura.

Back downstairs, Gaara looked at the three people, and shrugged, "Ninja from Konoha are coming to bring back Sakura and Hinata. Naruto ran away from his teacher, and so they are coming for him to get him back under his care."

"Seriously?" Inari muttered, "That is so cool!"

Gaara ignored him, and looked at Hinata, "You had to have known that they would be coming for you as fast as possible, knowing your status as the heiress to the Hyuuga clan."

"What?" Tsunami asked in shock, "You're an heiress?"

Hinata bit her lower lip, and whispered out her reply so only Tsunami could hear her.

"Why are they after you guys?"

"I have yet to determine why exactly they are so frantic in bringing back Naruto, but Hinata ran away from her duties, so they are here to bring her back. It would just seem that Sakura happens to be part of the agenda to bring Hinata back, since she is with you as well." Gaara explained, "Are you going to go back to your clan?"

Hinata looked up when he asked her, "They need a better leader than myself… I- I wouldn't be a good leader anyway."

Gaara frowned at that, _I thought the same thing… _"I see."

Surprisingly he did not ask anything else and just sat quietly as he waited for Naruto to come back down with Sakura.

XxXxXxX

"Sakura! We've got to go!" Slammed open her bedroom door, just as she put on a fresh shirt.

"Why would you burst into a girl's room like that? What if you saw something?!"

She punched Naruto across the face, and he fell down from the force, "I am sorry! I didn't think about it!"

"Of course you didn't! Do you ever think?" She sighed.

"Anyway, we have got to go." Naruto burst back to his feet.

"I figured we would have to leave soon." Sakura muttered.

"Yeah, do you need me to help you get anything ready?"

"No. I have most of my clothes packed all ready." She pointed back behind her where a small bag was, "I knew we would leave."

"Good." Naruto said.

"By the way…" She looked hesitant, "Is Gaara still around?"

"Yeah." He replied off-handedly, "He is coming with us."

Sakura had lifted her bag onto her shoulder when Naruto said that, and she did nothing to stop the bag from sliding back down and onto the ground. Her mouth hung open as she slowly blinked several times, "What?"

"I said Gaara was coming with us…"

"Gaara, the one who nearly killed me?" She asked, "The one who pinned me to a tree, making all my bones crush until the pain was too great that I passed out. That Gaara?"

"Yes." Naruto said, staring her down, "He has changed for the better, plea-"

"I refuse to travel with him!" Sakura shouted, "Do you seriously think I will be ok with that? He has a demon inside of him that could break his will and make him kill us all!"

Naruto felt a rush of anger at her words, "Do you know what it is like to have a demon sealed inside of you? Do you know the torment Gaara had to have gone through because of that demon? The torment I-" He stopped, _I nearly gave myself away. _"You know nothing about who he truly is or why he became like that."

"Regardless, I don't want him to fall asleep and have that demon kill us!"

"Gaara's will is strong!" Naruto shouted, "There are very few people in the world I trust my life with, but out of everyone I know, Gaara tops that list!"

"Why? Just because he helped you try to save Sasuke?" She said bringing up the topic, "A bunch of help that did! In the end it meant nothing!"

Naruto couldn't stop himself from raising his arm in a split second and slapping the girl right across the face, "If it weren't for him and his siblings Kiba and Shikamaru would have died! Lee would have died!" Naruto could feel the demon's chakra feeding itself to him, and that is when he knew he went overboard.

His face contorted into horror, "Oh god, Sakura." He fell to his knees, "I am so sorry."

She was still on the ground rubbing the side of her cheek that Naruto slammed his palm into, she could feel a few tears in her eyes, just from the sheer pain of it, but she didn't cry out. Instead, she steadily stood up, "Fine. If you trust Gaara to come with us, I'll allow it. Just get out."

"Sakura, forgive me!" Naruto got onto his knees.

"I said get out!" She shouted, and grabbed Naruto and threw him out into the hall and slammed the door shut.

He looked up and glanced down at his hand that had slapped Sakura. He looked around aimlessly, and then towards the door. He prayed that Sakura would come out and forgive him, but after waiting a minute the door was still closed. He dejectedly stood up and wandered back downstairs.

XxXxXxX

"Are they shouting?" Tsunami asked, as they heard raised voices coming from upstairs, "I hope they know we can hear them."

"Kind of, we can't hear what exactly they are saying." Inari corrected her.

Hinata was looking downward, still going through what she was about to do and what it would cost her friends. Gaara meanwhile was looking upward towards the ceiling where approximately Naruto and Sakura were. He knew without a doubt that they were fighting over whether he could come, he knew it would be an issue the moment he saw how Sakura had reacted to seeing him, but he did not expect to hear Naruto's voice being raised, and suddenly a quick burst of Kyuubi's chakra.

When it swept across the room Gaara could feel the second presence in his mind telling him to kill the two women and the child suddenly disappear. However, even with that happy thought, he still wondered why Kyuubi's chakra had come into play.

It wasn't long after when they heard a door being slammed shut, and a minute later came down a very dejected looking Naruto.

"Come on guys, we have to get ready to go." Naruto mumbled.

"We're prepared." Gaara said motioning to Hinata and himself, "Where is Sakura?"

Hinata glanced up with wide eyes towards Gaara, "Y- You're coming?"

Naruto let out a long and loud sigh, "Yes. He is coming with us."

Hinata wasn't one to argue a point, especially with Naruto, so she simply nodded her head, but still looked uncertainly over at Gaara.

"I swear I will not kill." Gaara said raising his hand, "Even if they threaten me or my friends, I will never kill another person."

"He's a changed person Hinata." Naruto said, putting his arm around the boys shoulder, "I can trust him, can you too?"

"A- all right…" She whispered. Hinata was still hesitant, but she was willing to try.

Tsunami and Inari both looked at the children, confused as to what they were talking about. However, Inari pushed those thoughts aside as he wandered to Naruto, "It was good seeing you again."

"Yeah, you too." Naruto said getting on his knee and hugging the kid, "Look, I'll help out your uncle next time we come all right? I just am on a really tight schedule right now."

"Yeah, I'll hold you to that." Inari said as they parted.

"It was so nice to have your company again!" Tsunami said, wrapping her arms around the boy, "Please come again!" She went over to Hinata and gave the sky girl the same treatment.

"We have to leave now." Gaara spoke up, "They can't feel our chakra due to there being so many other signatures around, but I doubt we'll be able to escape if they pinpoint our exact location."

"We just have to wait for-."

"I'm ready."

The three looked back at Sakura walking down the stairs. Her cheek wasn't red or swelling at all, probably due to medical jutsu, and she didn't even look towards Gaara.

"Well, now we're going to be missing-nin. Sounds exciting." Naruto said, but his voice lacked his usual enthusiasm.

Gaara didn't even have to ask about what the sudden tension in the room was due to. _I wonder if traveling with them was a good idea after all._ His doubt was clear, but he knew that he had committed himself to this; _I will have to prove to them that I can be trusted. _

With that goal in mind, he got up and followed the others out of the house, and disappeared along with them all as they jumped into the trees.

XxXxXxX

"Jiraiya."

The old man jumped as his name was called and he turned around to find Kakashi standing behind him, "Kakashi? What are you doing here?"

"Figures." The masked ninja sighed, "Aren't you supposed to go get Naruto?"

"Nah." The man waved his hand, "I have been watching him throughout the village, I know where he is and what he is doing. I am just allowing him to have fun before he feels my wrath."

"I suppose it wouldn't surprise you that Gaara is here to find Naruto as well."

"Gaara? The Suna kid?"

"Yes." Kakashi confirmed, "I traveled here with him."

"I was ordered to find Naruto and return him to you, because Tsunade knew you'd eventually start to look at the women here…" He said waving his arm around the outside of the bathhouse they were at. Jiraiya had a small peeping hole he was looking through, and a notebook he was writing in.

"Hmph, how does she know me so well?"

"Jiraiya, I am sure everyone knows that you do this."

"True, but you don't mind do you?" He raised his notebook up, "Icha Icha Paradise book fourteen is going to be on sale soon."

Kakashi smiled, "I can't wait for that, but can we get to the issue at hand?"

"Right, if you think it's necessary for me to get the brat now, then you must be right." He stood and cracked his neck, "Let's do this."

XxXxXxX

Neji looked around the village with his Byakugan activated with his team close behind him. Team 8 was also very close behind, having decided to work with Team Gai for this assignment. After all, bringing back an heir was quite an important task. The group was garnering looks from the public, but other than that there was no actions taken against them, due to the fact that they were ninja.

Unfortunately for them, Neji couldn't find any signs of Naruto, Hinata or Sakura. No matter how hard he looked, he just found no signs of them.

"Damn it! I don't know where they could have gone!" He cursed, looking towards the ground.

"Do you think it's possible that they got an advanced warning about leaving the town?" Tenten asked, "I mean, it's pretty rare when you can't find something with your eyes like that."

"It's a possibility," Neji responded, "You guys keep searching here with Kiba. He should be able to sniff up some signs of the group. I'll go looking around the outskirts of town."

"Neji! Allow me to come with you!" Lee said overdramatically as usual, "Two pairs of eyes are better than one!"

"And a pair of Byakugan is better than twenty pairs of eyes." Neji dead panned, "Lee, allow me to do this."

"You can't possibly cover the entire forest around here alone." Shino reasoned, "I'll come and cover half while you get the other half."

Neji thought about it for a few seconds, "Fine. The rest of you look around the village, if you find any signs of them do not let them escape!"

"Got it!" Everyone shouted, and went on to their assignments. Meanwhile Kurenai and Gai were both sitting back, allowing their students to handle the show.

XxXxXxX

Shikamaru knocked on the door to Tsunami's house with Ino by his side, "Hello, is anyone there?"

The door was opened almost instantly, and a middle aged woman along with a child looked out, "Hello." She greeted, and took notice of their headbands, "What can I do for you?"

"I know you had Naruto here. I just need to know where they went." Shikamaru asked. Upon seeing her hesitating he sighed, "I promise I will not harm them. They are my friends."

She still looked down, "No. I can't tell you."

Ino pulled Shikamaru back, "Do you want me to get into her mind?" She whispered.

"No. She's not a criminal." He said back, and looked towards the woman, "Please, it's vitally important that we return them to Konoha. Especially Hinata." He added saying her name, hoping it would sway the woman to help him.

"We're not telling you anything!" Inari spoke up, "Naruto is our friend, do you think we'd give up where he went when he trusts us?"

Shikamaru paused, "No. I suppose not."He let out a sigh, "I can understand why you won't help us. I am sorry for bothering you." He turned around and walked a little further back towards the edge of the forest, and when he was sure the door was closed, he called out, "Choji, Asuma?"

Asuma appeared immediately, and Choji came a few seconds later.

"Did you guys find any signs of where they went?"

"I found a lot of torn up trees from what looked like razor blades a little bit in, but other than that I found nothing." Choji informed him.

"That must have been where they trained." Shikamaru thought aloud, "Did you find anything sensei?"

"I know which direction they went." He said and pointed to the north.

"Are you sure of this?" Shikamaru asked.

"Positive. I can still vaguely feel their chakra signatures from here. We're maybe twenty minutes away from them as of now."

"Then let's hurry." Shikamaru said, jumping up into the trees along with the rest of his team.

"Shall we follow them?" Kakashi asked as he and Jiraiya appeared on the spot Team 10 was just on.

"I didn't expect the brat to leave so suddenly." Jiraiya sighed, "If that Gaara kid didn't appear…"

"No use complaining now. Let's go."

"Yeah, yeah." Jiraiya sighed, and the two of them followed closely behind the team.

XxXxXxX

"We need to find a boat." Gaara said upon seeing the ocean between them and the mainland.

"Can't we just run across it?" Naruto asked, "It doesn't look that far."

"It's several kilometers Naruto," Sakura answered, "That is quite a stretch to run across, and that is not even considering the current or waves."

"W- We could go across the bridge a-again…" Hinata suggested.

"No." Gaara disagreed, "They will be guarding that."

"It's our only choice." Sakura challenged, "Unless if you want to steal a boat."

"Fine." Gaara said, not willing to fight.

The four followed along the edge of the island, until they could clearly see the bridge in the distance. "Ok guys, we can water walk from this distance!" Naruto said.

"You're not going anywhere."

The four looked behind them to see Neji with his eyes as the Byakugan, and in the Hyuuga fighting stance, "Hinata, you're coming back with me."

"N- Neji! What a-are you doing here?"

"I have come to bring you back home Hinata. You may not realize it, but you leaving has caused quite an uproar. The elders are all agreeing with Hanabi being the new heir if you do not come back soon. She doesn't care about ending the tradition of the family, if she were in charge nothing would change. Hinata, your father has ordered me to bring you back, and I do not plan on going back on my word to him."

"I don't want to go back!" Hinata shouted, "I was always ridiculed by Hanabi and my father! I was always in pain or in my room wishing I was normal! I don't want to lead the clan!"

"You have to!" Neji exclaimed, "We often have to do things in life that we don't want to do! Look at me! My life is completely unfair! I was born to your father's twin who was born seconds later and thus labeled a branch house member. I have to wear this seal on my head for the rest of my life!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Hinata cried.

"Everything! The branch house supports you, with you we can get rid of this stupid system once and for all! Only you could convince the elders to change their ways. Hanabi is young, and is being brainwashed to act like the typical puppet that the head of house has been for generations."

"I- I can't!" She shouted.

"Then I have no choice! You're coming with me whether you like it or not!" He suddenly charged at Hinata, but a wall of sand flew up in the way, making Neji have to quickly back petal to prevent himself from slamming into the wall.

"I do not wish for anyone to be hurt." Gaara stated, "If she wants to stay, then she stays."

"Do you truly wish to not come back Hinata?" Neji asked falling to his knees, deactivating the Byakugan, "We need you… We were depending on you."

"I promise I will come back Neji." Hinata said, "I will be s- strong then, a- and the Hyuuga elder's w- will have to follow my rules."

"I hope that is the case." He sighed, "I can't beat all four of you. Just go, but Hinata, I will hold you to your word."

"I- I won't go back on it." She said, "It's my ninja way."

"Very well." Neji sighed, "Naruto, Sakura, take care of her. Gaara," He said looking at the boy, "Thank you for stopping me." Gaara nodded back to him. "I will take my leave. Please be careful." With that he turned around and began to run back in to the island.

"We'll help you get strong Hinata." Naruto said, placing his hand on her shoulder, "And I promise that I will help you with the Hyuuga council when I become Hokage."

Hinata nodded, along to it, not even caring for the moment that it was Naruto who was touching her.

XxXxXxX

Team 10 ran into Neji as they were minutes away from the coast of the island they were on, the large group stopped and gathered around the boy.

"You found them right?" Ino asked.

"I did." He answered, "But I have faith that they are doing the right thing."

"What?" Shikamaru asked, "You let them go?"

"Yes."

"You do realize what the Hyuuga clan is going to go through because of that, right?"

"I know, but Hinata will come back and retake control." He smiled, "I am positive she will."

"It's unlike you to put so much faith into someone Neji." Asuma responded, but otherwise looked more amused than anything.

"I am just eager for her to come back, that is all."

"Right then." Shikamaru sighed, "We won't mention in our report that you let them go. However, we're still going after them. It's our mission after all. Could you at least tell me where they went?"

"Right about now I would say they're crossing the bridge."

Shikamaru let out a long sigh, "This is going to take a lot longer than I originally thought it would. This time we won't have any way to find them either…"

"Don't worry Shikamaru, we'll find them." Choji said reassuringly.

"Right. Thank you Neji and I hope you're right about this."

"Don't worry, I know I am."

XxXxXxX

Naruto looked along the top of the bridge before calling down towards the other three that it was clear. He then climbed up the bridge followed by Hinata, then Sakura, and finally Gaara. The people around them were giving them an odd look, but otherwise paid no mind to them. Knowing they were clear, the four of them rushed the rest of the length of the bridge, and continued to jump into the trees of the fire country, having no clear direction in mind other than north.

Hinata was very quiet as she thought about her choice, while Sakura was also unusually quiet. Gaara simply stared straight ahead as he went on, while Naruto looked at each of his group members.

Naruto finally glanced at Sakura, who seem to be content with ignoring both him and Gaara, and let out a sigh. _Somehow I feel this is going to be a long trip…_

Chapter four – End

A/N – And the true adventure begins. If you have any questions or other things just ask. See you all in chapter 5.


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